Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability: Vol.1 The Spirit of Sustainability

With The Spirit of Sustainability, Berkshire has launched Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability, which will comprise 10 volumes when it is completed. Future volumes will cover business, law, natural resources, and geographic regions, among other topics. As stated in the “Publisher’s Note,” although there is other good reference material on the environment, much of it is focused on the problems. Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability, on the other hand, is “a project about solutions.” Developed under the auspices of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University, The Spirit of Sustainability examines sustainability as a “moral challenge.” More than 110 international and primarily academic contributors wrote the 147 A–Z entries, which range from 1 to 5 pages in length. A number of entries are those one would expect to see in an encyclopedia on environmental concerns, such as Agriculture, Climate change, and Water. However, with the goal of “introducing the question of sustainability in multiple moral perspectives,” there are also entries for concepts such as Community, Justice, and Sin and evil as well as various spiritual and theological frameworks, from Christianity—Mainline Protestant and Hinduism to indigenous traditions in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. Each entry includes a brief introductory summary and a further-reading list, and many entries also include sidebars containing primary source material. Berkshire publications have a high standard of design, and this one is no exception. Like last year’s Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, The Spirit of Sustainability incorporates graphic elements supporting its theme. Twenty-one photographic images, one for each alphabetical grouping, introduce the entries, and scientific illustrations, many from the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library, are scattered throughout. The layout is intended to make photocopying easy, and teachers are encouraged to make up to 10 copies of no more than two articles for use in a single class or program. This is a nice feature for high-school classrooms, but much of the content is too academic for that audience. The complementary Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy (2008) covers some of the same topics but takes a more interdisciplinary approach. The Spirit of Sustainability is an important contribution, especially as part of a larger whole, and is essential for academic and large public libraries with collections on the environment. As a stand-alone, it would be a good choice for religion collections as well. Also available as an e-book. –Mary Ellen Quinn